Decades ago, a great toe joint implant was developed by the late Charles O. Townley, M. D. As excellent as that one-piece implant is, it is not without its drawbacks. Among these include the relatively large inventory of implants required to be kept on hand to accommodate a particular patient, and a lack of options for the surgeon should bone stock of the patient require more extensive resection or should he make a mistake in surgery by resecting a little too much bone, the result of which in both of the latter cases can be a shorter than desired toe after surgery.
It is desirable to ameliorate if not overcome such drawbacks.